Soccer|Just in Time, Game Between Barcelona and Manchester City Gets a New Dimension

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Just in Time, Game Between Barcelona and Manchester City Gets a New Dimension

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Lionel Messi, center, led the way against Saúl Ñíguez and Rayo Vallecano. The Argentine scored two goals to give him 228 over all in the Spanish league, passing Alfredo Di Stéfano’s mark.CreditCreditAlbert Gea/Reuters

LONDON — The intensity and joy are back with Barcelona. The intensity and belief are back with Manchester City. And there could be few better ways to welcome back the Champions League than when these two meet in Manchester on Tuesday night.

If Barça is back on full throttle, that means Lionel Messi is over his injuries and scoring again at a rate that eclipses the greats. The little Argentine chipped in two goals, exquisite of course, in Barcelona’s 6-0 obliteration of Rayo Vallecano on Saturday.

Earlier that evening, City eliminated Chelsea from the F.A. Cup, scoring only twice in a performance so strong that Chelsea was not allowed a shot on goal in the 90 minutes.

This, said City captain Vincent Kompany, was vengeance for Chelsea winning at the Etihad Stadium in the league two weeks ago. No it wasn’t, City Coach Manuel Pellegrini said; it was the fact that his team did not want to lose twice in its stadium to the same opponent.

The best sound of all at the postgame news conferences was the muted acceptance of Chelsea’s coach, José Mourinho. “Simple,” Mourinho said. “City played much better than us, and when the best team wins, I think football is in peace.”

It is at peace when this particular man is not bad-mouthing his fellow managers, as Mourinho did so often when his path crossed Pellegrini’s in Spanish and English soccer.

The game has another dimension when Barça’s stars are in good health. Two weeks ago, when Messi was tenderly feeling his way back after months of rest for his tired and torn hamstrings, a coach whose team took full advantage of Barcelona’s wounds last season made a significant observation.

“When all your players are fit,” Jupp Heynckes told a Barcelona board member, “you still have more talents than us.”

Heynckes retired after his Bayern Munich side cleaned out the Bundesliga, German Cup and Champions League last season. His acknowledgment that Bayern finished off a weakened Barcelona came two weeks ago, when he met Barcelona’s vice president, Javier Faus.

That is how sportsmen — with some exceptions — talk when the microphones are switched off. Heynckes left Munich in great shape, and Pep Guardiola, the former coach at Barcelona, has added talents to Bayern since replacing him.

Meanwhile, not only has Messi needed a prolonged timeout, but the captain Carles Puyol, the dynamic inventor Andrés Iniesta and the galvanic left back Jordi Alba have been nursed through strains and nagging pains. It hasn’t always been appreciated, but Tata Martino, the coach in his first season after coming over from Argentina, has juggled maintaining results at the top while rotating and resting senior players.

Some fluency was lost. Critics accused Martino of tampering with Barça’s intrinsic “tika-taka” pass-and-move style by trying to persuade players to mix up their approach, to make long diagonal passes from time to time.

The coach had one purpose. He sought to arrive at the business end of the European season with a team fit enough and fresh enough to take on the best in Europe. There might, as people have suggested, be another motive.

Martino is Argentine. Messi and another Barcelona player, Javier Mascherano, are also Argentine. There is a World Cup coming, and Argentina wants to be a force in that, just as Spain and Brazil and Germany intend to be.

Even if it is done subconsciously, players do hold something back through the long season to be ready to take on the World Cup. If anyone is to blame for that, it is FIFA and the clubs for filling out the now year-round calendar with ever more lucrative tournaments.

How thrilling, then, it is to see Messi et al. discard their cautious winter coats and turn on their skills again. With his first goal, an audacious flick of the ball over the head of the on-rushing Vallecano keeper on Saturday, Messi tied Alfredo Di Stéfano’s career mark of 227 goals that he scored between 1953 and 1966.

One great Argentine player eclipses the record of another.

But Messi wasn’t finished. He was involved in more of the goals, scored by Adriano, Alexis Sánchez and lastly by Neymar, the Brazilian returning from an ankle injury with a stunning run from the halfway line before he finished with his right foot.

Messi, though, gave one more exhibition of his predatory art, his insatiable appetite for scoring, his joy. His second goal of Saturday night — a low, precise placement from the edge of the 18-yard box, typical for Messi — took him past Di Stéfano’s career total.

There are other records on Messi’s radar. He is now level with Raúl González, and Hugo Sánchez’s mark of 234 is within reach. After that is the Athletic Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra, who scored 251 goals from 1940 to 1955. The difference is that those were career tallies, while Messi, who is 26, has plenty of time to add to his 337 total goals in 436 appearances in a Barça shirt.

Moreover, in modern soccer not all players get to play 90 minutes every game. Martino did on Saturday what he has done before — he substituted the greatest player in the world to spare his legs and his energy for Tuesday in Manchester.

City awaits him in better heart. The 2-0 victory over Chelsea was achieved without the midfield presence of Fernandinho and the scoring threat of Sergio Agüero. Both are injured, and both make a big difference to City.

However, David Silva was impishly creative on Saturday, and Pellegrini outfoxed Mourinho with his use of substitutions. The first goal was a delightfully quick and precise low cross shot from Stevan Jovetic, the Montenegrin who has had few opportunities to show his class in Manchester.

The second was worked by Silva and scored by Samir Nasri within minutes of Nasri replacing Jovetic.

Pellegrini did not crow. His side was in better shape than it was when it met Chelsea 12 days before. A refreshed Barça will be a different dimension altogether.